From Zen

2/10/02- I put the three songs we have recorded on a CD today, plan on handing them out at school to those who asked.
2/11/02- Started working on site more and had a practice with Marc. Ash and Tim could not attend, we just rehearsed our three good originals. Worked a little on the upcoming porno music/jazzy sounding instrumental, but not much. I guess Ash went to Marc's after I left and, risen from the ashes of the inabilities to create decent music, a new song has been born!
2/12/02- Me and Marc met to discuss the web site thing, he put in his two cents about what he thinks should be changed. I ended up changing the way the NavBar looks, as well as the background. I put up live and promo pics of Marc, and a live pic of Ash. Also, came up with a few ideas for a name, as of now we remain nameless.
2/20/02- It's been a busy time for From Zen. First, we came up with the name, much credit to Marc for the name and all his artistry, which I have combined and colored (using the computer) to make that logo thing up top. Anyway, we have written another song called Whatever Works, you can check out lyrics on the songs page. Also, we rerecorded Monday, D.I.I.K., and Is That It? but I think the old Monday was better. We also recorded Whatever Works, so there is a new version of our promo CD floating around, few have it yet. Anyway, more is coming, be on the lookout for more From Zen.
2/22/02- I added my thanks page, the link is on my lil bio thing (note: I am Chris for those unknowing), I also put up Marc's about, gear, and thanks pages. One more thing, tomorrow during practice we are getting interviewed to be in the Scarlet Tanager, so all you Fitch kids look for that whenever the next ST comes out, probably in May or something like that.
2/23/02- Today was ok for From Zen. We started a new song. It's far and away the most aggressive effort from us yet, most should like it. Tim informed me today that there are people from Andover, MA or something like that visiting the site, very cool. Too bad you're not more local, I'd give you a demo. Anyway, on the note of the interview we had, it went alright, I don't think Sasha was too pleased with our goofy attitude about it since it is for one of her classes I believe, so sorry Sasha. Keep checking back for the latest From Zen...
2/25/02- "It's a monday morning and you can feel it..." No kidding. Marc, Ash, and Tim got together today to work on our new song, I (Chris) was unable to attend for family reasons (nothing serious). They practiced the song and added some parts to the end. We'll work on it more on Saturday.
2/26/02- I added the lyrics for the new song, entitled Home Planet. I encourage you all to check them out at the songs page. I also added the credits at the bottom of each song to tell who wrote what. In music news, I went to Marc's today and laid the drum line for Home Planet. This song will have your head nodding like nothing else we have done before.
2/27/02- Nothing much today, I put up Tim's About section and that's it.
2/28/02- I made my gear section more detailed, citing the specific cymbals and drum sizes I use. I also designed a new logo, the other one was cool looking, but it's more of a banner than a logo. I'll go through and put it on every page in Webtop tomorrow.
3/1/02- Today I put up TONS of pics. There are new ones in every Promo section, and in the live sections for me and Marc. I have another roll I will get developed which is primarily live pics. I also put up the crew page, check out the link on the right. Also specified my gear section more.
3/2/02- Today at practice, we mastered Home Planet which was cool. And we began writing a new song, which is really weird sounding, I can't describe it. Anyway, I'm trying to get the intro movie to work so look for that in a day or two hopefully.
3/4/02- Not much happened today, I put the flash intro up yesterday and went throught and changed all the links on the Home button to make them go to this page instead of the intro. Other than that, nothing's new.
3/5/02- Well, today was busy. I have almost completed the new site design which will hopefully premier soon, this site is now a temporary thing. Marc came up and he basically made the intro for the new site, I just did the computer stuff to put it together, the ideas were all his basically. And, besides the web stuff, I scheduled From Zen's first show. Look to the right if you haven't already to see more about it.
3/5/02- Well, today was busy. I have almost completed the new site design which will hopefully premier soon, this site is now a temporary thing. Marc came up and he basically made the intro for the new site, I just did the computer stuff to put it together, the ideas were all his basically. And, besides the web stuff, I scheduled From Zen's first show. Look to the right if you haven't already to see more about it.
3/11/02- Saturday was a good day for us. I left at 12:00 then came back later. Before I left, we got the equivalent of nothing done. When I got back, the other three were at the cemetary on Rt. 1 standing on the brick wall waving to cars as they went by. I joined them and in the span of an hour we got 184 people to wave back! We then returned to Marc's and he and I worked on the new (and as of yet untitled) song. It is by far the best song we've ever written. It's more groove oriented and still more complicated. Not to mention at least a minute and a half longer than any other song we've written. I'm going over to Marc's today to continue work on it. We're going to strive to have it ready to perform at our Mar. 22nd show at the Como.
3/12/02- I will be purchasing a domain name soon. The new address will www.fromzen.com when I get it, I'll put an announcement up once it's done. I will also take down this site and begin puttin up the new one at that time, so lets all get ready to bid farewell to this site.
3/19/02- Today is the day for auditions for the Fitch Battle. I don't think any bands are getting rejected so you should be able to see us on Apr. 6 as well as this Friday.
3/20/02- Last night went really well at the auditions. The other bands were great too, we're all bringing something different to the table, I would strongly advise you all to show up on Apr. 6, it's going to be good fun. Don't forget about Friday.
3/25/02- Friday was awesome. I'd like to thank everyone who came out and supported us. It was great fun for us to finally play for you guys. As you know, we didn't win but we still got the most applause, oh well. Saturday was an okay practice, started another new song. It's gonna be another heavy one. Hopefully we'll work on it more today.
3/26/02- I took the liberty to modify the guestbook and separate out the arguing from the true guestbook entries. It was getting a little out of hand. Also, if for some reason there are any memorabiliacs out there who would like the set list that I had taped to my drumrack on Friday, at our first show ever, email me. I'm expecting no one to care so the "contest" ends on Friday at noon at which time I will throw it away.
3/27/02- Well, the "contest" for the set list is over. The winner is Becky Swan. Congratulations, Becky! We will also be doing some recording soon with producer Kevin Scanlon.
4/1/01- Happy April Fool's Day! Well, Scanlon came over on Saturday and recording went very well. We only got D.I.I.K, Is That It?, and Home Planet done, but he's coming over again sometime to do Whatever Works and our new song. Other than that, nothing is new really, just be sure to check us out on Saturday.
4/5/02- Hope everyone's week went well. This Saturday we are doing the Fitch BOtB. Should be pretty fun. Frascy had a good plan as to how to run it, hopefully it's smooth. Tomorrow we are also having produced Scanlon come back over to record our remaining two songs. It's going to be a very good day for From Zen. I'll post when you guys can start askin me for the new version of our promo cd.
4/8/02- We all would like to thank everyone who came out on Saturday and supported us. It was a lot of fun for us to play, obviously. Congrats also to Yellin Keller (you ruled!) and Next in Line for their finishes. Y.K. finished 3^rd, we placed 2^nd, and N.I.L. won. Also on Saturday we did some more work with Scanlon, that went alright. Ashley had to depart so he couldn't record the vocals. We're going to do that on my computer, but I don't yet know when. I also added pics from the show on Saturday. Check em out. Thanks much to Jessi for those.
4/23/02- Sorry it's been so long, I didn't feel like messing with the site over vacation. We have a slew of songs in the making and can't wait to find an opportunity to play them live for ya'. I won't talk about 'em much until they're all complete. And a note for people who use the message board, the other band members and I will not tolerate the bad-mouthing of people who are not in the band. You can say the band sucks, whatever, that's your opinion. There is simply no need for the pointless degradation of people like that, so I will ban anybody and everybody who starts making personal charges on people outside of From Zen. It's as simple as that. Alright, with that aside, I hope everyone had an excellent April vacation (assuming that most of you are indeed in school), and check back in a few days because we have learned that there is a possile show coming up with Whose to Blame and Yellin Keller and the El 'n' Gee club. More later...
5/1/02- Hey. Hope things are well with everyone. I have learned from Marc that we are probably going to be playing somewhere in New London some time soon. A note on the Gee gig with Whose to Blame and Yellin Keller, it's not going through. In other news, if you check out the promo pics for me (Chris) and Marc, you will view some pics of me and him mobbed out. If you look, you'll see what I mean. That's all for today. Keep it positive...
5/4/02- Good day everyone. Things have been changed on the site. I'm sure if you visit frequently enough you'll notice it, otherwise just take it for what it is. Nothing got accomplished at practice today.
5/14/02- Another long span between updates. However, nothing has really gone on. We haven't had a full practice in a while so it's hard to get something done. On Saturday, Tim, Marc, and I all called the Secret Theater in New London to try and get a show there. Hopefully that'll work out. Hope you guys like the new news layout instead of linking to the other page. I find it to be niftier, thanks to Jelden for pointing me in the direction to find this nifty thing.
5/28/02- Sorry for the long lack of updates lately, but things have been slow. We've finally gotten into another little writing groove, with one exremely upbeat, one funky, and one calm song hot off the press, I think we're all looking forward to getting some more done in the next few weeks. While at work a couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a guy opening a sound studio in the building and we're going to be testing the place out for them, which I think translates into free studio time for us. I don't know how much yet, they have not contacted me. Hopefully that'll be a positive thing that creates a domino effect of shows soon thereafter. HOPEFULLY!! Hope to see you all whenever we get a show.
-Chris Burns
5/30/02- Hey all. Hope all is well. Nothin much, I redid the "Songs" section, I think it's a bit niftier now than before. It's kind of like this page now, with the scrolling layer. It's a bit more user-friendly, since you don't have to download a whole separate document to view a different song, they're all contained in that one page. They just get hidden. Anyway, Ash and Marc had a writing session on Tuesday and two songs were accomplished. We'll try to polish those off on Saturday. I'll update you again then. Have fun people.
-Chris
5/31/02- Hey. I've started redoing my epuipment page, it's fun. You hover over a piece of my kit and I tell you a little about it. It's done yet but you can check out the work in progree "here". That's all for today.
-Chris
6/2/02- Good day everyone. Yesterday's practice was a success. Things were squared away on two songs, and a good time was had. We also ventured over to Ron's and Marc put down money on a Mesa Single Rectifier!! That's right, more power means more rockin!! And aside from all that goodness, I am writing a song by myself to contribute, and Marc will also do the same. Mine is tentatively titled, "Human Nature." I'll put up the lyrics as soon as they're completed, which will probably be within the next couple days. Check later. Peace and have fun.
-Chris
6/3/02- Hey all. As promised, Human Nature is now up for your viewing pleasure in the Songs section. Along with that, I also put up two other songs. Be sure to check them out. Peace.
-Chris
6/7/02- Hola! Yesterday and today were two extremely awesome days for From Zen. Yesterday, I got a new resonant head for my bass drum. Ash got a preamp and a hand drum. Today, I bought a second snare drum, check out my equip page for more info. We also got three, thats right, THREE songs done at practice. With even better things to come tomorrow. Peace.
-Chris
6/9/02- Greetings. I have redone the equipment pages for myself (same idea as last time, but with a better picture including my new snare) and have also implemented the same idea on Marc's equip page. In other news, yesterday we rehearsed our 6 new songs, and in the process Tim wrote his bass lines. Ash figured out how to sing Human Nature finally. Get ready for our next show. Should be rockin.
-Chris
7/7/02- Sorry for the lack of updates lately but both myself and Tim are out of town and I haven't talked to Marc, so I don't know what he and Ash have been able to accomplish in the wake of mine and Tim's absence. I come back to CT on 7/12 and Tim on 8/1 so things will start to pick up again here in a little while hopefully.
-Chris
7/15/02- Things are starting to pick up again, I am back in town and today we all practiced minus Tim. He's still out west somewhere. We wrote a really kick ass song today to be quite honest with you all. Tomorrow we are going to use the 4 track and record it, it will not be distributed for some time however, you'll just have to hear at the Anal Bum Cover Tour. That's all for now. Have fun, don't get skin cancer.
-Chris
8/10/02- A new song has been written and you all will be able to experience it at the Anal Bum Cover Tour 2002, so show up and hear it. We will be renting a mixing board on the 19th and 20th hopefully and will record some stuff, if not all during that time. So get ready for a possible CD coming sometime in the future, we'd probably write some more to put on it, but we will be that much closer once this recording is out of the way. Also, BIG NEWS, we could be adding another member to the band. We might bring in DJ Doppler to add his two cents to our songs. AND, aside from all that good stuff, I'm in the process of re-making the yet again, but will leave this version up and running once the new one is complete. Which should be a couple weeks at the latest. That is all the news for now, thanks for tuning in. I'm Chris Burns, good night.
8/14/02- As you can see, the new site is up and fully functional, the menus definitely work better with faster computers, I have a 1.0GHz processor and they are great with it, so that's a little basis of comparison for you. We've been practicing a lot within these last few days, nothing new has come out it save the one I spoke of on the 10th, we've just been rehearsing the crap out of the songs we have to get ready for next Friday. That's about it as of now. Have fun. -Chris